Employers to Prepare Early on Haze-related Workplace Measures
In view of the possible haze situation in Singapore, employers are reminded to implement precautionary measures outlined in MOM's guidelines and advisory to ensure the health and safety of their workers at the workplace.
Guidelines for employers on protecting employees from the effect of haze
Introduction
Under the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Act, the primary responsibility for ensuring an employee’s safety and health at work lies with the employer. Hence, it is incumbent upon employers to carry out a proper risk assessment and to implement appropriate measures, including specifying when to restrict work, so as to ensure that risks identified are minimised or mitigated.
This set of guidelines provides employers with general measures to minimise or mitigate the effects of haze on their employees. Additional measures specific to the work requirements and health conditions of the employees should be instituted based on the risk as assessed by the employers. The health effects depend on the severity of the smoke haze as benchmarked against the PSI (Pollutant Standards Index) reading, the health conditions and level of activity of the employee. The PSI stated in these guidelines refer to the revised 24-hour PSI issued by the National Environment Agency (NEA), which is available online at https://www.nea.gov.sg.
Preparation
Following the announcement of an increased risk of haze by NEA, employers should review the following preparations to protect the safety and health of employees against the effects of haze:
Identify susceptible employees.1
Identify types of outdoor work2 to be reduced when there is haze.
Determine criteria for restricting outdoor work.
Conduct mask fit testing for employees who are still required to work outdoors and ensure at least 1-week supply of N95 masks as part of companies' haze-related Business Continuity Plans.
Improve efficiency of air cleaning devices.
Implement haze communication system between employer and employees.
Management of outdoor work
Depending on the air quality, prolonged3 or strenuous4 outdoor work should be reduced, minimised or avoided. Risk assessments, taking into account the effects of the haze, individual employee’s health and working conditions, should be conducted. Risk mitigating measures should be adopted. Examples of such measures may include:
The use of mechanical aids (e.g. trolleys, hoists) for transporting or carrying heavy objects, instead of manual lifting or carrying.
Consider flexible work arrangements such as adjusting work assignments or rotate jobs to shorten the time spent in outdoor work.
Schedule sufficient indoor rest breaks for workers performing outdoor work.
Ensure adequate hydration for workers.
Monitor employees’ health by encouraging feedback on any symptoms that may occur.
Defer non-essential work.
If prolonged or strenuous outdoor work is not avoidable at higher PSI, and an employer still requires an employee to do so due to extenuating circumstances, suitable masks or appropriate respirators should be provided.
Employers should bear in mind that the use of masks may increase the effort of breathing especially during physical exertion. For some employees, they may experience discomfort in breathing, tiredness or headache. This may be due to their masks causing increased resistance to breathing, and a reduction in the volume of air breathed. Employers should consider instituting regular breaks, slow down pace of work and encourage hydration of employees using masks. At any time, if employees experience breathing difficulty from wearing masks while working outdoors, employers should deploy them to work indoors where the pollutant concentration may be lower. Risk assessment, taking into account the usage of the masks, individual employee’s heath conditions and nature of outdoor work should be conducted. Elderly and pregnant employees as well as those with chronic heart/lung disease should consult their doctors on the usage of masks.
Additionally, visibility factors should also be taken into account, e.g. risk assessments should be conducted to determine whether outdoor lifting operations involving tower and mobile cranes should cease due to the foreseeable risk of poor visibility, so as not to compromise safety of persons at work. Such work can only be carried out when appropriate precautions have been taken to reduce the risk.
Table A provides an overview of the guidelines based on the 24-hour PSI. Employers should note that environmental conditions may fluctuate throughout a work day and factor this into their risk assessments.
Provision of suitable protective equipment
It is the duty of employers to provide suitable masks (e.g. N95 masks) to employees where warranted. Factors to consider in the selection of suitable masks including the nature and levels of pollutants, work tasks and conditions, operator-related factors and any accessories used together with the masks. The purpose of the mask is to ensure that users are adequately protected from inhaling the pollutants and the appropriate masks should be selected for use when required. As an example, for particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), the correct type of mask is one which is capable of filtering out about 95% of very fine particles, such as N95 mask or equivalent.
In hazardous haze situations, an N95 mask which has a protection factor (PF) of 10, may not provide workers with sufficient respiratory protection. As such, respirators with higher PF (e.g. full face respirators) should be considered when performing prolonged outdoor work at 24-hour PSI above 400.
Employers should ensure that employees who need to wear masks or respirators are fit-tested and that sufficient stock is available. Training should be conducted and supervision provided to ensure correct usage. Masks should be changed when soiled/physically damaged or when the wearer finds it hard to breathe. Reference should be made to the Singapore Standard SS 548:2009: Code of Practice for Selection, use and maintenance of respiratory protective devices.
Suitable eye protection (e.g. goggles) should be provided when there is eye irritation. However, interaction with masks should be considered when other personal protective equipment is used.
Enhancing protection for indoor work
Please refer to NEA’s website for information on how you can improve the air quality for both non air-conditioned and air-conditioned workplaces with the use of suitable air cleaning devices.
https://www.haze.gov.sg/resources/portable-air-cleaners
To enhance the protection offered by remaining indoors, measures should be taken to reduce haze infiltrating indoor air by keeping windows and doors closed most of the time.
Communication on haze
A system should be put in place to update employees regularly on the mitigating measures including flexible work arrangements taken by the organisation to minimise the safety and health effects of haze on employees. The system should include channels for employees to report adverse effects suffered as a result of the haze.
Table A: Overview of guidelines for employers on protecting employees from the effects of haze
| 24-Hour PSI | Healthy employees | Elderly, pregnant employees | Employees with chronic lung disease, heart disease | General measures to be taken by employers |
≤100
(Good / Moderate) | Normal activities | Normal activities | Normal activities | - Initiate preparatory measures to protect the safety and health of employees against the effects of haze.
|
101-200
(Unhealthy) | Reduce prolonged or strenuous outdoor work | Minimise prolonged or strenuous outdoor work | Avoid prolonged or strenuous outdoor work | - Take risk mitigating measures such as use of mechanical aids, job rotation, instituting indoor rest breaks, ensuring adequate hydration, etc.
|
201-300
(Very Unhealthy) | Avoid prolonged or strenuous outdoor work | Minimise outdoor work | Avoid outdoor work | - Take risk mitigating measures such as use of mechanical aids, job rotation, instituting indoor rest breaks, ensuring adequate hydration, etc.
- If prolonged or strenuous outdoor work is not avoidable, and an employer still requires an employee to do so due to extenuating circumstances, the employer is strongly urged to provide masks.
|
> 300
(Hazardous) | Minimise outdoor work | Avoid outdoor work | Avoid outdoor work | - Take additional risk mitigating measures such as job redeployment, reducing the intensity and duration of outdoor work, institute regular breaks or deferment of non-essential jobs.
- If outdoor work is not avoidable, and an employer still requires an employee to do so due to extenuating circumstances, masks or appropriate respirators (e.g. full face respirators for prolonged outdoor work at 24-hour PSI>400) should be provided.
- Risk assessment should consider the additional risk posed by poor visibility for work activities such as lifting operations involving tower and mobile cranes.
|
Prolonged = continuous exposure for several hours
Strenuous = involving a lot of energy or effort
Reduce = do less
Minimise = do as little as possible
Avoid = do not do
FOOTNOTE
This refers to employees with chronic heart or lung disease, elderly employees, or pregnant employees. Please refer to the MOH health advisories for further information.
Outdoor work is work that is carried out outside buildings regularly or most of the time.
Prolonged = continuous exposure for several hours.
Strenuous = involving a lot of energy or effort.
Tripartite advisory to employers on haze-related workplace measures
Introduction
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) have issued this tripartite advisory to assist employers in preparing and implementing haze-related workplace measures.
Employers should prepare these workplace measures early so that they can be ready to react and implement these measures smoothly depending on the haze situation. It is also important that employers actively engage their union and employees on the planned measures ahead of time. Being prepared early will help mitigate the impact on businesses in the event of haze and reassure employees that appropriate workplace measures are in place.
Mitigating the Effects of Haze on Employees
Employers are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the Guidelines for Employers on Protecting Employees from the Effects of Haze issued by MOM. Depending on the air quality, prolonged1 or strenuous2 outdoor work should be reduced, minimised or avoided. This could be done through redeployment of the affected workers. Risk assessments should be conducted and risk mitigating measures adopted.
Flexible Work and Leave Arrangements during Haze
Some employees (especially those who are older, pregnant or have respiratory illnesses) may be unable to report for work due to health reasons. Other employees may need to take care of their family members, e.g. if their family member is sick or if there is a need for alternative childcare arrangements should schools or childcare facilities close as a result of the haze situation. In such situations, employers may consider adopting the following measures:
Where possible, implement flexible work arrangements (FWAs) such as telecommuting and staggered work hours to meet organisational and employees’ personal needs. Employers and employees should discuss the appropriate FWAs to be adopted; who are eligible for these FWAs; and any corresponding leave arrangements.
Where such arrangements are not feasible, request the employees to use their leave entitlements such as annual, sick or childcare leave. If employees have exhausted their leave entitlements, employers are encouraged to be flexible in granting paid time off to their employees or allowing them to use advance paid leave or other leave arrangements as far as possible.
Suspension of Business Operations During Haze
Employers will need to make their own risk assessment to decide if they wish to continue with their business operations as the working conditions will differ across different workplaces. Employers who wish to suspend business operations, whether partially or fully, should take note of the following:
If the suspension is on a short-term and ad-hoc basis, employers should bear the costs of doing so and not deduct from the pay or leave entitlements of their affected employees.
If the suspension of business operations is for longer periods, employers should discuss with their union and employees on the appropriate flexible work, leave and salary arrangements to be put in place.
Employers are strongly encouraged to have in place internal company grievance handling procedures to manage any haze-related employment disputes.
Minimising Disruption to Work Due to Haze
Employers should put in place Business Continuity Plans (BCP)3 during peacetime to help minimise work disruptions. Employers are also encouraged to brief employees on the BCP and on the employees’ roles and responsibilities. Employers could plan and conduct BCP exercises to maintain and increase the readiness of the organisation and employees. To help employers defray the cost of BCP adoption, financial assistance is available through Enterprise Singapore's Enterprise Development Grant (EDG)4.
